How To Take Your Ideas From Brainstorm To Action

Your mind is bubbling over with ideas. And every one of them seems viable. But how do you manage a plethora of ideas?

"Brainstorming is a worthwhile exercise to generate new ideas or new ways of approaching your career or business," says Tiffani Murray, author of Stuck on Stupid: A Guide for Today's Professional Stuck in a Rut, and owner talent management/HR technology firm TMurray HRTech .com.

There really isn´t such a thing as too many ideas, says information counsellor and small business consultant PepperBrooks of The Writology. "Having ideas is not a bad thing, jot down your ideas in a journal, don’t lose them they be valuable to you later. But having too many without a plan can be," she says.

After you have them written down, you will need to figure out a plan of action. "Create a plan and manage your ideas by categorizing them based on priority, practicability and emotion. Trust your gut. Ask your friends, create a survey or focus group to narrow them down," says PepperBrooks. Murray agrees.

"It isn't bad to have too many ideas. Where things get tricky is when you try to implement or execute against every idea you have," she points out. "There is truly only so much time in a day and as one person or even as a team you can only bring to life so many ideas at once. As an individual and as a team it's best to prioritize and rank all of your ideas." Make some order out of the ideas. "Ranking may help you to determine which ideas are worth going forward with and which ones you may want to wait on or scrap altogether. Taking the time to review and analyze your ideas for your business or career allows you to determine how viable those ideas may be," says Murray.

Test your ideas. An idea may seem great to you, but it may bomb with others. So try trot them out first to a few people. "You can test out or ´pilot your ideas´ with small groups of your target market. We only need to look at big companies to see this form of test in action," explains Murray. "Think about a company like Coca-Cola. Before they launch a new flavor they are going to have it tested in many sample markets to gauge the response to the drink. Do the same with your ideas. If you can have test participants at first, this is the best route to go."